Indonesian Infrastructure Part IV – Transportation: Railroads

THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 07, 2009

Indonesian Infrastructure Part IV – Transportation: Railroads

Analyzing Transportation, as part of the Infrastructure it is worthy to note that land transportation is concentrated in Java and Sumatra; and prevails among other means, as it is shown in this graph:

Source: INDONESIAN RAILWAY INDUSTRY
This may be complemented by the data, provided in this document by Ministry of Transportation

 
The numbers show that Railroad Infrastructure is still undeveloped and there is much space in its investment future. Detailed analysis of Indonesian Railway Industry is presented in ROAD MAP FOR NATIONAL RAILWAY INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT by Harun al-Rasyid S. LUBIS from Insitut Teknologi Bandung, that provides this general summary:

PT Kereta Api (Persero) or KAI is the one and only train operator in Indonesia.  KAI is operating a number of passenger and freight transportation in 92 lanes in Java and Sumatra with 525 locomotives, 1,831 passenger trains, and 8,228 freight trains. KAI operates an active rail web of about 4,564 km: 3,231 – in Java and 1,333 – in Sumatra. In Java, the network covers about 3,000 km, in Sumatra there are 3 unconnected networks in 3 regions – North Sumatra & Aceh, West Sumatra and South Sumatra.  From the map below – it obvious that there are big investment opportunities for Railroad infrastructure projects in Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua.

Source: INDONESIAN RAILWAY INDUSTRY
Within my Blog it is impossible to cover all issues of Railway Infrastructure projects, but I would like to mention a few that support mining.
The Puruk Cahu – Bangkuang Coal Railway Transportation Project (185 km length) is sponsored by the Central Kalimantan Provincial Government. The railway, in the Central Kalimantan Province, will pass through Kabupaten Murung Raya, Kabupaten Barito Utara, and Kabupaten Barito Selatan to the east of the Barito River. The Project will be developed through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme.

125-km East Kalimantan Railway Network that is financed by the Government of Ras Al Khaimah, UAE ($1.5 billion), scheduled to be completed by 2012.
Tanjung Enim, South Sumatra – Tarahan port $ 1.06 billion railway project that is carried out by a joint-venture company between PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam, PT Transpacific Railway Infrastructure and China Railway Engineering Corporation (it was also reported that PT Barito Pacific Tbk is now participating in the project). Estimated completion is in 2013. It is interesting to note that implementation of this project would significantly boost performance of PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam , as it is shown by KRESNA Securities:

 
More Railway projects are described in this presentation: PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATION IN ASIAN RAILWAYS
P.S. An excellent overview is provided in History of Railways in Indonesia going way back to 1864.